December 2007

Stardust
Submitted Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 5:47:11 PM by Klaitu

Stardust is prehaps the best film I have seen in months.

it's about a boy who lives in victorian England. There's a wall nearby which has a crack in it. Legend says that the crack leads to a new strange and magical world. Since this is a movie, it turns out that's exactly what it is.

The plot is complicated and satisfying with 4 intersecting plot threads. The movie also features some excellent physical effects work, particularly in situations where CGI could have been used instead.

And the soundtrack is amazing as well.

I don't want to ruin it for you, so go out and rent it (or buy it) as soon as possible. You'll be glad you did.

Overall Score: 9 of 10

Spider Man 3
Submitted Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 5:39:53 PM by Klaitu

I liked Spider Man 3, but not as much as I liked number 1 or 2. It's probably because of the villians: Sandman, Goblin, and Venom.

Everyone knows the coolest Spiderman villian is the Kingpin. We couldn't use him? This is like putting Lizardman in his own movie.

Anyways, number 3 is pretty formulaic: Spidey is having girl problems while he tries to balance his life with his role as superhero... with lots of CGI.

It's another popcorn flick, but your children will love it, particularly boys aged 5 to 12.

Overall Score: 7 of 10

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Submitted Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 5:35:34 PM by Klaitu

I'm going to admit it, the basis of this movie is not interesting to me, but it's got Adam Sandler in it, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Heck, there was a time when Sandler was awesome, right?

Chuck and Larry is the story of two guys who get gay married in order to transfer Larry's benefits package to Larry's kids. "Hilarity" ensues.

I put "Hilarity" in quotation marks because.. well, It's not really that hilarious. It's got Dan Akroyd in it, though.. so that's something.

Overall Score: 6 of 10

I Am Legend
Submitted Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 5:31:51 PM by Klaitu

Before I saw the movie, I had read several reviews which basically said that it was a good movie except for the ending.

I'd agree with that basic assessment. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, I'm probably going to spoil something about it.

I Am Legend is the story of Will Smith in 2012. Some smartypants retroengineered the measles virus to cure cancer, and it did cure cancer, but it also turned people into zombies. Well, more accurately it killed 5.4 billion people, and then of the remaining 600 million it turned 300 million into zombies who then ate most of the non-zombies.

Will Smith is a military biology guy, who is somehow immune to the virus entirely. He spends his time in deserted New York where he works on a cure.

The movie is filled with how Will Smith goes about his daily life in a strangely empty New York. His tactic is to avoid the zombies when possible. He hangs out with his dog, who is pretty much his only company.

This takes up most of the movie, and it's quite good.. but then the ending hits rather abruptly. I'll spare you most of the details, but I want to focus on one scene.

Will Smith, a woman, and a boy are trapped in his laboratory, behind security glass. The zombies are after them. Also in the room is an ex-zombie test subject for Smith's latest medicine. While fleeing for their lives, they discover that this zombie is no longer a zombie after all.

Unfortunately, they're trapped with no way out. So, Smith stuffs the woman and kid into a little cubbyhole thing he's got convieniently hidden away, he gives them the cure and then proceeds to blow himself up with a grenade that he also happened to just have lying around.

Okay, heroic, I dig it.

Here's a better idea: Throw the grenade. Grenades are designed to be thrown. Why not throw it into the midst of the zombies and blow them up while staying alive yourself? Instead he just sort of runs into the middle of all the zombies and blows himself up.

Disappointing ending. You can consider this movie akin to Smith's other movies, which seem like they're going to be awesome, but turn out to be popcorn fluff.

It's not a bad movie, but it's not as good as it could have been.

Overall Score: 7 of 10

Rock Band
Submitted Wednesday, December 19, 2007 - 11:42:32 AM by Klaitu

I rock!

No, seriously, I rock. I use my axe to shred.

Alright, so I pretend like I rock.. but that's okay, Rock Band allows me to do just that.

Everyone's heard of Rock Band, but fewer have played it. There are reports that there aren't enough copies to go around for the holiday season.

I got my copy off Amazon.com, and I selected the PS3 version. There is also a XB360 version that costs the same amount. I chose the PS3 version for 3 reasons:

1. Fewer people have a PS3 at the moment, so more copies of that version should be available.

2. My PS3 is connected to my sound system by optical cable, so I can make use of the dolby digital support.

3. Online play for the PS3 is free, whereas I would have to pay for the 360's online play.

I purchased the special pack bundle that comes with all the instruments, the total cost was $170, but I threw some of my Amazon certificates that way and dropped it down to $100 or so.

Before I made a purchase of this magnitude, I did some research and read some reviews. The biggest complaints seemed to be that people were breaking their drum pads and their guitar, but Electronic Arts has an instrument replacement policy for broken ones, so I decided to go for it.

When Rock Band arrived on my door, at first I didn't easily recognize what it was. Some of my christmas shopping arrived on the door at the same time. The box for Rock band is huge! It's probably 4 feet tall!

True to its word, it contained everything I needed to get started. the Microphone is easy enough, The guitar was wireless and required a screwdriver to install the batteries. The drum kit came in 8 different pieces, but they were easy enough to assemble.

While the guitar was wireless, it didn't use bluetooth and operates via a wireless dongle that attaches to your USB connector. The drums and Mic are also USB. The person with the Mic uses an ordinary sixaxis to control their menu choices.

The guitar, as you might expect, is a replica of a real fender guitar. Many reviews said that the guitar feels "fragile" and "like a toy", but I didn't agree with that assessment. It feels much more solid than the Guitar Hero 1 and 2 controllers. The guitar isn't hollow in any place, and the strum bar doesn't click like the Guitar Hero version does. There are a lot of reports of the guitars breaking, but mine hasn't broken yet, and it doesn't feel like it's going to. If anything, the Whammy bar seems like the weak point, as in previous guitars.

I was impressed with the drum set. It has 4 drum pads and a foot kicker. The drums are built in such a way that you could really give them a whack and they wouldn't be damaged. Even if you miss and hit the rim, the entire pad assembly is cushioned. The set comes with a pair of your very own real drum sticks. Well, very own real wooden drumsticks. These are probably the cheapest drumsticks ever made, they aren't coated with that plasticy treatment stuff. Still.. real wood, and when's the last time your video game came with anything made out of wood?

The Mic is pretty much a mic, it's a bit retro, and it looks like something you might find in Karaoke Revolution or Singstar. It's got the longest USB cable I have ever seen. The mic also doubles as a cowbell and a tambourine if you tap it against your hand, which is cool.

So, after all the assembling, I put in the disc and got to rockin. My first instrument was the guitar.

The Guitar plays just like Guitar Hero. It's a little funky getting used to the square rock band notes, as opposed to the round ones used for Guitar Hero. The strum Bar feels different. Other than that, there are virtually no gameplay differences. You even activate star power the same way.

The concept behind the drums seemed simple enough. Just need to hit the right color at the right time. Playing the drums, I discovered that my arms completely rock at drumming, but by feet suck at it. I plan to practice some more, but I'm not sure I will ever be able to properly jam the drums. Part of the problem is that I have a couch, which doesn't led itself to using the foot pedal very well. You really need an actual chair or stool for that.

The Mic? Well, I didn't spend a lot of time with it. Singing is not what Klaitu's do best. However, the mic was responsive to the hideous sounds coming from my mouth. The game is supposed to detect if you're singing the words or just humming, but it wasn't able to detect my screeching vs real singing. Also, the mic recognizes notes regardless of octaves, so if a song is too high or too low for you, you can just sing in your natural range and the game accepts it.

A note about the bass: The bass is the 4th instrument in rock band, but uses the same controller as the guitar. The game only comes with one guitar controller, and additional controllers wont be released until January. The PS3 version of the game is not compatible with any Guitar Hero guitar, thanks to Activision who wouldn't allow the patch that would have made this possible. As I understand it, the 360 doesn't have this problem, the guitar hero controllers work just fine with it.

After trying the different instruments, I decided that I only rocked ehough to play one instrument, so I enlisted a couple buddies to some jam with me.

My Sister, Rachael rocked the Mic. She's a Radio DJ and all that, so it seemed appropriate.

My friend from High School, Jessica rocked the drums. She's a big guitar hero freak and had enough of the guitar. Thankfully, she's better with the feet than I am.

Then, yours truly was on the Guitar.

We formed a band. I demanded that it be called "The Wyld Stallyins" but somehow we became "The Baby Elephants". It let us pick our logo, so we chose a giant peanut. Our motto was "Anybody want a peanut?"

The next step was to create our rockers. Unlike the Guitar Hero series, RockBand lets you fully customize a rocker. When I was finished, I looked sooooo good. I got me some 80's metal hair, rock on.

Rachael went more for a Joan Jett kinda thing, her pants had barbed wire on them. We decided that nothing rocks as hard as barbed wire pants.

Jessica's goal was to create the fattest drummer possible. She discovered that in Rock Band land, when you max out the weight slider, it goes to the rump. So, Jessica ended up with a large-rumped drummer. With green hair.

Once we had all of our stuff customized, we burst onto the scene in New York, playing dives and whatnot. Turns out we were pretty good, at least on medium difficulty. Rachael was able to play on Expert, seeing as she was really good at singing. Jessica and I stayed on Medium most of the time. I don't rock hard enough to use the orange fret.

Playing together was rockin fun, I don't know exactly why.. something about collaborating together to rock probably.

Eventually we defeated the evil band "Dethkiller" and stole their van and rocked out in Chicago, where we won a tour bus. We spent several hours rocking around North America. Then Jessica and Rachael got tired. They had to go to work.. sheesh!

We all came to the conclusion that Rock Band rocks. Also, that our computer-generated bassist dresses like a ho, and needs to be replaced. Sounds like we need to hold auditions.

Overall Score: 9 of 10

Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2
Submitted Monday, December 17, 2007 - 4:52:27 PM by Klaitu

This will be the easiest review I have ever done.

Ho, Ho, Ho and all that.
Submitted Monday, December 17, 2007 - 3:00:57 PM by Klaitu

Finally!

Christmas vacation is here!

Long ago I worked tirelessly.. calculating, scheming, plotting. My team of scientists and I determined the correct temporal occlusion in which to input my vacation time in order to produce a christmas vacation. My efforts were well rewarded back in February.

While my fellows were snoozing, I squeaked the vacation right from under their noses!

10 days! That's my parole. Oh sure, I'll have to go back eventually, but presently I've got nothing to do but sit back and watch 2 consecutive seasons of Scrubs!

Oh, Zach Braff, you give hope to nerds everywhere.

Anyways, I also got a nice bonus check from my work. I don't know what happened to cause it. When I learned of it I checked to see if pigs were flying, or perhaps hell had frozen over.. but then I decided that those two jokes were cliche and vowed never to speak of them again.

So it turns out they laid an extra 900 bucks on me, which oddly enough puts me about $700 above the average payout for my department. The bonus was based on performance and was retroactively applied to all the hours I've worked in the past 3 months. So, instead of the paltry $11.15 per hour I make, the bonus calculated my pay for if I had earned 13.15 per hour and then dumped that on me all at once.

I can't say that I'm complaining about that little tidbit. It couldn't have come at a better time, either. It's time for Christmas presents galore! Huzzah!

Oh, and on another topic.. where have I been? Well, Christmas season is travel season. Travel season is torture Klaitu season.

Thank goodness for Christmas Vacation.

Transformers
Submitted Sunday, December 9, 2007 - 12:29:03 PM by Klaitu

There's an Energon Cube under Hoover Dam!

The Transformers movie explains to me the biggest mystery of the Transformers Cartoon Series: Why would an alien race of robots be able to transform into Earth vehicles? I mean, is it really going to be useful to turn into a 1967 VW bug on the planet Kremulakk?

In the movie, the Transformers are merely robots who have the ability to mimic the appearance and function of other machines that have a similar mass. Cool, I dig it!

Here's the story: A cube called the All Spark fell to earth long ago. The All Spark can transform any machine into a transformer, essentially it gives robotic life to machines.

Megatron, the big bad transformer and leader of the Decepticons tracked it to earth, where he crashed in a cold mountainous area and froze.

In the 1930s an explorer from America, hiking in the region fell into a cave and found Megatron. He accidentally activated Megatrons navigation system (the button for it is on his hand for some reason). The navigation system etched the location of the all spark into the guy's glasses.

Now the Decepticons and the Autobots are looking for the glasses in the present day. They're up for sale on ebay, they could just buy them.

Most of the Autobots and Decepticons you already know, but have gotten an upgrade.

Bumblebee is now a Camaro.. a good step up from the VW bug he used to be. Starscream is now an F-22 raptor. Megatron, having not taken an earth camoflage, is some sort of alien spaceship jet fighter thing. In the cartoon, he was.. a pistol.

Transformers is pretty good, I'd recommend it!

Overall Score: 8 of 10

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Submitted Sunday, December 9, 2007 - 12:16:58 PM by Klaitu

Nerd Alert!

I thought that the Silver Surfer was supposed to be awesome.

It turns out that he sucks, and it's just his surfboard that is awesome.

That's the message of this film, whereby Dr. Doom comes up with a scheme to steal the silver surfer's surfboard.

the movie does very well on the personal interaction of the Fantastif Four.. Reed Richards and his wedding to Jessica Alba.. I mean Sue Storm. The movie falls flat in it's action sequences.

Now, it's not all the filmmakers fault, the Fantastic Four are about the loseriest bunch of superheroes in the Marvel lineup. So, to be fair, Imma break this baby into pros and cons.

Pros:
- Stan Lee not on the guest list at Reed Richards wedding.
- The Silver Surfer sounds a lot like Morpheus from the Matrix.
- Human Torch and the Thing have some awesome banter this time around.
- Jessica Alba's tight-fitting outfits.

Cons:
- The action scenes are actionless.
- The dorky Fantastic Four mobile, which can seat exactly 5 people. Why?
- The plot. I mean.. seriously Dr. Doom.. a surfboard?
- The human torch's power-switching ability.

Now, I'm going to go into detail on the part of this film that bugged me the most. Johnny Storm's power switching. Near the first of the movie it is established that when Johnny touches another member of the Fantasic Four, they exchange powers. This is first discovered when Jessica Alba touches him and she catches on fire and burns all her clothes off. Neat.

Anyways, now we know that Johnny is not supposed to touch anybody. The Thing touches him, just for a laugh. Alright, hilarious moment.

Later in the movie, Mr. Fantastic is all tangled up in a ferris wheel, and the Human torch is chasing the Silver Surfer. Apparently he is so bad at flying that he can't avoid Mr. Fantastic at all, and runs into him.

Following me still? It's well established that when Johnny touches someone, they EXCHANGE powers.

Now, at the end to confront Dr. Doom and the surfboard, they decide that Johnny needs to have all the powers of the team. As we have repeatedly established, this cannot happen, because Johnny cannot GET powers without GIVING his own power.

So, basically the film just ignores that, and gives the Human torch all the 4 powers, and removed the powers from the other 3 people. How did this happen? I mean, I'd buy that Johnny could hold 3 of the powers if he touched 3 people at the same time, but those 3 people would all be human torchy, and he would not.

Furthermore, how would he get the powers back into the right people? I digress.

Sadly, the only character to get any play is the Human Torch. Mr. Fantastic does some nerd stuff with computers, so he gets some air time. Thing doesn't do much, and the Invisible Woman? Completely useless throughout the whole movie.

Overall Score: 3 of 10

Gears of War
Submitted Sunday, December 9, 2007 - 11:52:45 AM by Klaitu

It's not a first person shooter! YAY!

Do you like to plug 3 or 4 clips of ammunition into one monster before it dies? Then Gears of War is for you!

Gears of War is a third person shooter witha cover system.. not unlike some of the splinter cell games, or Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. You pop out from cover to blast the enemy.. and blast them you will, because they are for some reason, virtually immune to bullets.

It's got decent graphics if you enjoy the burned out carcass of futuristic industrial plants.

Other than that, there's nothing too revolutionary about Gears of War. The game is, however, fun with a friend.

Overall Score: 6 of 10

Assassin's Creed
Submitted Sunday, December 9, 2007 - 11:43:53 AM by Klaitu

It was to be the winter blockbuster game. Not FPS, not platformer. Something innovative and new.

Assassin's Creed is another game with a lot of polish on it. Its interface is impressive, and the controls respond excellently.

In Assassin's Creed, you're a bartender who has been abducted by a medical research firm. They use a machine called the animus that sends you back in time into your genetic memory of an ancestor who was an assassin during the crusades.

Assassin's Creed has a lot going for it, thing is that the game is ridiculously easy. You'll die more from falling off rooftops than by being killed by a guard.

I'm not much into assassinating people, personally. It's just a taste thing, but I would expect in a game like Assassin's Creed that when they give you a target to assassinate, you'd do it all cleverly. Instead, in this game, you jump in and face the opponent in the middle of a cutscene with a sword.. where EVERYONE can see you. Then, you proceeed to take him down in an elaborate sword fight with 5 different guys (which you have no chance of losing because the game is so easy).

The game is supposed to be all stealthy and sneaky. The game has an elaborate stealth system and a plethora of ways for you to hide. It would be cool if you could sneak up on your target and just stab him in the back or something.. but that doesn't happen.

Another thing that bugs me is that the Assassins guild wears uniforms. since you're wearing an assassin's uniform, everyone knows you're an assassin! This seems to me to be counterproductive to the whole "sneak and kill" thing.

Lastly.. perhaps this is a nitpick, but the game runs in 720p. Why? Why not run it in 1080i or 1080p? This might be a title to get on the ps3. My xbox 360 version had problems rendering scenes with a lot of people in them. That's not to say the PS3 version doesn't have that problem, it very well may.

Overall score: 6 of 10

Saint's Row
Submitted Sunday, December 9, 2007 - 11:31:36 AM by Klaitu

Saint's Row is a wannabe Grand Theft Auto.

Gang violence, explicit language, exploding cars, running from the cops, shootin ho's. It's all there.

Thing is, it's got bad aiming controls, and the cars drive all funny. There also aren't any helicopters or planes to fly.

Radio banter is amazingly not funny. I don't know how anyone could screw up radio banter, but they did. The game has way too many radio channels, so that every time you enter or exit a vehicle, you have to flip the channel 20 times to turn it off.

One thing that Saint's Row does do exceptionally well is car explosions. There's nothing like blowing up a car and having the hood take out a rival gang member. Awesome.

Overall Score: 6 of 10

Bioshock
Submitted Sunday, December 9, 2007 - 11:27:08 AM by Klaitu

Everyone rants and raves over Bioshock. It's got good reviews from just about everywhere, and those reviews are not entirely unfounded.

You're in a plane crash in the middle of the ocean, fortunately, there's an island nearby. On the island is an elevator, and the elevator turns out to be an undersea bathosphere that takes you to the underwater city of Rapture.

Rapture is a mad scientist community made in the 1950's. Since that time, something has gone horribly wrong and now the inhabitants are all insane. It's your job to survive.

Bioshock is a first person shooter, which means it's not as good as it could have been had it been any other kind of game. I'e shot aliens, nazis, the occasional zombified elephant, and now insane genetic engineers. Put reticle over bad guy, push button, bad guy dies.

The game does get props for adding a new element called plasmids. Basically, your right trigger controls guns, and the left trigger controls your plasmid power.. like lightning from your fingertips, or telekinesis. Essentially, they are force power moves.

This allows you to do some neat things, like if there are enemies standing in water, you can electrocute them all at once by shocking the water.

Unfortunately, moments like this are few and far between. Most of the game consists of pointing and shooting.

The artwork and music here are great, the game has a lot of polish, and you've got to respect a game that has water effects so detailed. Graphics are excellent, and the controls are spot on.

There is, however, one aspect of the game that ruined the entire experience.

Throughout the game you are given objectives, and a compass appears to guide you to your goal. Once you arrive at your goal, you disover that you actually need 3 keys to open the door/hatch/whatever in order to proceed. The game does not deviate from this. Take 3 pictures, get a keycard, get a certain power.. theres always something that you missed that you have to go back and do in order to proceed.. AND your compass is useless, it always points to the door that you can't get past.

Bioshock is a flagrant violator of Rule number 1 in Klaitu's game design book: I HATE MAZES! Don't make me run through mazes. Mazes are not fun. All I do is wander around aimlessly until I bumble into whatever it is I needed to do.

Admittedly, they are very good looking mazes. Still, they are mazes.

Overall Score: 5 of 10

If only there weren't mazes!

Oh, Almost Forgot
Submitted Friday, December 7, 2007 - 4:32:06 PM by Klaitu

Happy Pearl Harbor Day.

Where in the World is Klaitu Sandiego?
Submitted Friday, December 7, 2007 - 4:28:05 PM by Klaitu

I'm in the state with the blue background on its flag!

People have been asking "Klaitu, where have ye be?" and I must reply "I ye be right here for some time" It's just that I've been working new hours, different hours..

daytime hours.

My fellow night creatures, I can tell you these things.. the star this planet orbits is hot and yellow, and the creatures that can operate a phone in the daytime are far more freakish during the light hours.

"The wiper fluid is frozen in my car and I can't squirt my windshield to get all the ice off!! I need a new car RIGHT NOW!!"

I'm going to go ahead and take a moment to vent, because this lame crap didn't happen last year. It's time to nip it in the bud.

First off, I'm not disputing that the windshield fluid can help clean off a windshield. That's what it's there for. I acknowledge that this is a problem.

However, as to the level and urgency of this problem, I'm going to go ahead and put it at zero. If there is actually a negative level of urgency, your call is in it.

You want me to bring you another car? Why? The windshield fluid in the new car would just freeze, and then you'd have the same problem again. I'm not going to pay $100 bucks or more for that.

Here's some helpful tips:

1. Turn on the car.

It doesn't matter what kind of car it is, there are at least 800 pounds of metal in there that will heat up. After all, your car is powered by miniature explosions that create friction. in 5 minutes, it's going to be 200 or more degrees under that car. Plenty enough to thaw your wiper fluid.

Oh, what's that, you say that you already tried that? I don't believe you. In fact, your car was designed to do this.

2. Buy an Ice Scraper

Fine, so you don't want to turn on the car, or lied and said you already did. We have ways around this, they're called ice scrapers, and we use them to scrape ice. Now, admittedly you might not have an ice scraper.. but Hertz is so nice that they'll reimburse you for buying an ice scraper, even though you're stupid and should have already had one when you drove into a blizzard.

Oh, you say you're old and you can't scrape the ice? What are you doing travelling alone in a blizzard? Why are you in such a hurry that you can't just turn on the defroster?

3. Turn on the Defroster

Do I really have to explain the etymology of this word?

De - anti, against
Frost - frozen ice
er - that which

That which is against frozen ice! It's like someone put a feature on the car that is designed to melt ice right off the windshield!

Oh, but you've got a business meeting you need to be to in 5 minutes? Maybe you should have left earlier, you know, since you're in a blizzard.

4. Get a jug of water

Now, this one is a last resort, and it requires the most brainpower to pull off, so I don't recommend you try it unless you're willing to replace a windshield.

Go get a jug of water. Not hot water, stupid.. the coldest water you can find. No, not ice water, stupid. Normal water.

Now, splash that crap all up on your windshield, but you have to move fast, because you have to turn the wipers on right after the water hits, otherwise it'll just freeze. Yeah, this is what you would have done with the wiper fluid, I know!

If you're in a pinch, you can also use your own urine. Urine contains salt, which means it won't freeze unless you'are at the north pole. Take all the time you want to get to the wiper controls.

5. Just turn on the car, moron.

If you had just turned on the car in the first place, you would be driving now instead of calling and yelling at me because you decided to go somewhere cold.

Tabula Rasa
Submitted Saturday, December 1, 2007 - 6:52:25 PM by Klaitu

Or, if you want to get all technical.. Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa.

It's a futuristic MMO. Aliens came to Earth and took it over, but the humans escaped via what could be described as "stargates" and are now spread throughout the galaxy, trying to fight back.

The idea behind Tabula Rasa is pretty good, I'm sure it will make NCsoft a lot of money. It's based on web 2.0 philosophy, in that it's a game that you can pick up and put down at the drop of a hat. there's no staying power here.

The interfece is different from World of Warcraft, and Destination Games gets major props for that. Gameplay is quick and fast, but has little depth. It's mostly gun combat, so you're aiming and shooting much like a FPS. you lock onto enemies like an RPG. so the result is that once you're locked on, it doesnt matter where you aim.

The game's tutorial spends a lot of time explaining that you should take cover behind sandbags and walls and whatever else, but the result is unsatisfying. The enemies can still hit you even if you're 100% under cover (their bullets go through walls, sandbags, and even other creatures) being under cover only gives you a percentage chance that the enemy will miss.

Graphics are alright, they're a bit cartoony, and they move like cartoons. The bad guys look like cartoons.

Sounds are run-of-the-mill average sounds you coud find in any game. Nothing special here. Music is pretty bland, except for the entrance video.

Overall, I'd have to say that Tabula Rasa isn't really Richard Garriott's finest creation, but it's mainstream enough to turn a good profit and set him up for more games down the line.

Was that his goal? I don't know. Tabula Rasa just doesn't have enough depth to hold me.

Overall Score: 6 of 10